Chương 20: The Marketplace of Ideas

Nihil looked up at the system message while his two companions freaked out at the white space they'd suddenly been brought to without any preamble or door passage. An impressed whistle escaped his mouth. 800 experience points was nothing to sneeze at. It was enough to purchase a useful utility skill, in fact. Not enough for his inventory, but it brought him much much closer.

"Did the system just, did it time travel?" Kevin asked confusedly after sitting down on the floor in shock.

"We still had eight days before the end of the scenario, but now we only have six hours?"

"Who knows," Nihil replied with a shrug, long since having gotten used to these things.

"Realistically even if we had adventured through Atlantis during those eight days we wouldn't have gained more than 50 experience per day. This is a direct doubling of the best case scenario, without any of the danger." He'd never experienced something like this before, but it made sense. A deserted island couldn't not have a reward for escaping it, but that didn't necessarily mean that the administrators wanted to create an entire world outside the deserted island for the climbers to explore.

This seemed like a rather inelegant solution, rewarding them with a simple 100 experience points per day that they hadn't spent on the island. Did that mean Nihil had made a mistake by not building a raft and escaping immediately? Well, not really. He'd heard enough horror stories in his last run of people hastily doing so cap-sizing. His theory? You needed the Water Heart to not get targeted by the vicious sea creatures of the first floor. Only then could you set out into the great beyond.

Technically he could have potentially risked his life to kill all the fishmen on day 1, thus finding the riddle and the Water Heart. Then build a raft in three days and set off. At a rate of 100 experience points per day that would have netted him 2600 points. Instead he'd spend time on the island exploring it and his abilities, gaining on average 35 points per day, plus the large payout of 500. That amounted to about half of what he could have gotten by completing a fully optimised clear.

But that was the thing about optimisation. You often didn't know what the optimal path would have been until you'd already finished walking the suboptimal one. Nihil had gained a ridiculously high amount of experience in comparison to his first run where hadn't completed the hidden quest, killed a few fishmen and hadn't escaped the island. This time around he'd gained about 2070 experience points. More than four times what he'd achieved the first time.

One additional good thing was that only the idiot who'd died in the water on day 1 had failed the floor. Nine out of ten had survived. Unless of course the island had borne witness to a killing frenzy after the trio of Kevin, Nihil and Aliyah had left. It was impossible to know though, since they wouldn't share an intermediate floor with those survivors. Nihil simply presumed they'd all lived. Thus, even in the sense of saving lives, the floor had been a great success.

Human Lives saved from Nihil's perspective: 1 -> 5 He stretched and sat down in a lotus position in that most odious of white spaces in-between floors. As expected however, his companions soon exclaimed as they beheld the new feature introduced on floor 1. 5.

"We can finally buy stuff?" Aliyah exclaimed happily. Nihil's gaze drifted towards the introduction of the function. Remember to check out the Tower Marketplace which can be accessed on the intermediary floors! Tower Marketplace Claw of the Juggernaut: 799 points -This clawed weapon belonging to a famous assassin has seen more bloodshed than many kingdoms. Buy now and get the second one for free! Seller: Glorp Everspring bottle - 130 points -This small plastic bottle never runs out of water!

Seller: TAU1 Armour of the Fallen knight 2192 -A set of full plate adamantium armour which weighs as much as a feather. No spear is too sharp, no hammer too heavy. Become the warrior you need to become! Seller: Uahjhshjzzzhhg You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. … Showing page 1 out of XXXXXXXXXXXXX"I'd recommend against it," Nihil said critically, cursing that he couldn't give warnings that couldn't be justified with the information he had now.

"Why?" Aliyah asked, whirling around in surprise. Her companion, the animated hand was present on her shoulder. She'd really need that inventory skill once she collected some bigger corpses. Whatever you couldn't carry with you, stayed behind.

"There's clothes, there's water, food, health potions!"

"The administrators clearly want us dead," Nihil pointed out.

"They even put deadly sea creatures right where we landed, just a few metres away. How do you know these sellers have your best interest at heart? What if they're just selling you things you don't need in times where skills are more necessary."

"The Everspring Bottle," Kevin spoke up with furrowed brows.

"It would have been a life-saver on the last floor." Nihil threw the man a condescending look. Buying items had actually never been a trick he'd fallen for.

"Would it have been a life-saver?" he asked.

"Is it more important to have than to be? You can buy a skill to collect water from the atmosphere for…" he paused to check.

"803 experience points. The bottle can be lost while also providing no synergies for future skills."

"You think it's a trap?" Aliyah asked cautiously.

"I think it's suspicious," Nihil said, not yet having enough information to definitely advise against it under the rules of the time travel bullet.

"I think the skill I picked is suitable for many situations. I don't sleep, don't eat, don't drink. I'm stronger, faster, tougher, and can stitch things together." He pointed to Kevin.

"You can make objects such as weapons and creatures to scout or fight." He pointed to Aliyah.

"The endgame of reanimating corpses is to use their abilities. You could have a dozen in a year if you play your cards right." He shook his head.

"Now think what your abilities would be if you spent all those points which you used to purchase useful skills, on buying a simple set of enchanted armour. Quite frankly, it will likely get stolen or lost within a few floors. After all, it will be a skill that others can take from you." He raised his hand to cover one of his eyes.

"Beware the evil eye," he said cautiously. In fact, the items were so hard to predict the usefulness of that he didn't even want anyone to buy them so he could steal them. They were just a crutch that prevented you from exploring the full depths of the skills you had.

"I'm buying the water," Aliyah said decisively, after which a small bottle of water materialised in front of her. She frantically uncapped the water and started gulping it down, before handing it over to Kevin who did the same. Nihil watched them dispassionately. He'd never bought that water, relying instead on the logic that no floor should technically be impossible.

"Another problem with items is that you might buy one thinking it will help with the next floor. But how will you know what it will be?" he asked.

"Assume you buy the full plate after a combat heavy floor only to be dumped into a desert. Suddenly you just spent all your points on a portable sauna you'll have to leave behind if you want to ensure your own survival."

"Wait," Kevin suddenly said.

"Wouldn't creating an inventory skill solve the issue though?" he asked. Nihil shrugged.

"Depends how much you value your combat ability. A material-specific inventory system will set you back 2000-4000 experience. A non-specific inventory might just bankrupt a whole group at a price exceeding 10, 000. In the end you'll just have purchased a method to carry around items that you also had to spend points on." He pointed at Aliyah.

"An inventory to store corpses." He pointed at Kevin.

"An inventory to store drawings." Aliyah fiddled with the water that Kevin had reluctantly returned to her.

"It's all a bit… perfidious," she eventually said.

"Is everything a trap?" she asked, looking down at herself with a grimace.

"I really need some new clothes."" Wardrobe necklace," Kevin read aloud with dilated pupils, obviously reading something off the marketplace." This simple silver necklace can turn into any clothes that you desire. Always clean, always elegant, a lady's best friend. 1328 experience points?"

"Another thing that bothers me," Nihil said.

"Is that all the sellers are different. This isn't the system selling us stuff. It's other users."

"Climbers?" Kevin asked, confused.

"Exactly," Nihil nodded.

"And considering that the system harvests our experience points by allowing for the creation of skills, then why are other climbers selling their items? Surely, it's not to buy other, different items," he guessed haphazardly, creating arguments to support what he did know, that buying items was generally a bad decision.

"Wait," Aliyah suddenly.

"Doesn't that mean we can also sell items on this marketplace?" she asked excitedly. This feature is not available yet!

"Ok, alright," the woman muttered tiredly, fiddling with her water bottle"Enough about the marketplace," Nihil suddenly said.

"We need to discuss the next floor." He was saving desperately for the inventory skill. It was crucial for his survival. He could game the marketplace later.

"How?" Kevin asked.

"It's not like we know what it will be." Nihil did in fact know, which is why he was going to make his suggestion.

"I think we should split up," he said decisively.

"There are likely still many climbers unaware of the tricks of this tower. The way that hidden quests are set up, the fact that the marketplace is a trap. We need to separate to warn as many people as possible." Kevin blinked in surprise.

"That's, oddly, humanitarian of you."

"I am known far and wide for my charitable personality."

"I refuse," Aliyah said meanwhile.

"We have a higher survival chance if we stick together."

"You can go together then, I know I'm splitting up," Nihil said dismissively. He knew the nature of the next few floors. They didn't require teamwork.

"If we meet again in a floor that allows for it, we can help each other, but until then, I'll be going my own way."

"I refuse," Aliyah said again, smugly crossing her arms before raising her Everspring water bottle.

"I have something you need!" Nihil deadpanned at her.

"If she's coming, I'm coming," Kevin said decisively before nodding solemnly.

"She has something I need."

"I'll just go through one of the doors and close it behind me, also, didn't you say you'd ditch me at the earliest opportunity?" Nihil eventually muttered. The intermediary floors always provided as many doors to the next floor as there were people present. What people didn't know yet was that unless people entered together rather quickly, the door would disappear. He could simply push the two clowns backwards and jump through, leaving them behind.

"You grew on me," Kevin said.

"Like a fungus."

"If you don't let me come, I'll just not go and die," Aliyah suddenly said petulantly. Nihil put his hands on his hips and looked at the woman.

"What are you, five?" he asked sarcastically.

"If she's dying, I'm dying," Kevin suddenly said with a glint in his eyes.

"You both suck," Nihil told the pair while snorting. Regardless, the trio eventually found their way to the next floor after the six-hour waiting window passed and they crossed through the door, finding themselves in a lovely snowed-in wooden tavern with food, drinks and beds for all. Nihil sighed, as he looked at the other participants, knowing that this challenge would kill many more than the first floor had. -/- Floor 2: Sleep Deprivation Hell You are being hunted by a monster that eats only the sleeping.

The game ends when 72 hours have passed or the monster has eaten its fill. Participants: 10